Q: Does having high Light Armor skill give extra armor or bonuses too from armor that is Light Armor?
Example: If I have a Light Armor piece with 10 armor and 10 agility, will I gain more armor, agility, or both with a higher Light Armor skill?

Q: I'm wanting to use Sneak often, but should I make it a major even though it's one of the easiest skills to level up? I could put it in something else like Alchemy or Blade.

Q: If I choose "The Thief" sign and I get to 100 agility do I actually obtain 110 agility? Or is that sign just saying it will only need to invest 90 points into Agility, Speed, and Luck?

Q: Would this be a good build?
Race: Wood Elf
Sign: Thief
Attributes: Agility and Willpower
Majors: Marksman, Restoration, Illusion, then 4 of Sneak, Alchemy, Alteration, Light Armor, or Blade.

Notes: I'd like to level up Blade because when I get 100% Chameleon I'll just run around poking people while in Sneak and ignoring armor. I could drop Alteration as well since I only want Feather and Water Breathing/Walking and those are easy to come by after getting into the Mage's Guild then upgrade the spell when I get into the Arcane University. What I'm personally thinking for majors are all but Alteration.

Light Armor skill only affects light armor. Primarily the armor rating of the light armor pieces. Light armor does not affect agility. If you wear mixed armor, light armor skill only affects the light armor pieces.

For a sneaky character I recommend putting sneak as a minor. Otherwise you may level up too fast and become weaker.

The max for leveling attributes is always 100. So the Thief sign will not give you a 110 natural agility. You can fortify agility with spells, enchantments or potions. However Agility above 100 does not affect bow damage. It is questionable whether it will affect stagger rate or sneaking or lockpicking.

The build looks good to me. But I'd put alchemy as a minor if you're going to use it a lot. Same reason as Sneak. If you have Alchemy as a major it levels very quickly and may cause your character to increase character levels too fast and become weaker.

Great answers above; only thing I would say is that if you're looking to save some time levelling, consider the Steed birthsign. It's not exactly a favourite for some, but its 20 bonus on speed works wonders with a Woof Elf; you start with 75 speed or something really high. And with athletics often being a very slow skill to raise, it means you can get to 100 quicker.

I'd say it's okay to have one fast-leveling skill as a major, for roleplaying reasons, but probably not both sneak and alchemy. It's true that a fast-leveling skill will force your character's level up faster than your other skills develop, but as long as there's only one such skill, it will only push you up a few extra levels before that skill approaches its cap.

The "rules" are there to be broken. I have an alchemist character (an Altmer with Apprentice birthsign!) who has basically spammed alchemy (as a major skill) up to expert level, because knowledge of all four ingredient effects is important to the character. The result is a significantly weaker level 10 mage than you'd normally have, but the intelligence boost from the alchemy has resulted in a great magicka pool. (This character does a lot of kiting, summoning and running away. ) Note that this is a roleplaying decision.

It's possible to raise Sneak to 100 before leaving the tutorial, for what it's worth. This can be done because some of the rats are non-aggressive. I don't suggest doing that, but it's simple enough to get that skill to Apprentice level or higher before choosing a class, and then making it a minor. For that reason, I'd be reluctant to make Sneak a major.

main problem with alchemy as major is that it levels extremely fast even as a minor I make restore fatigue potions for money and training and has to restrict myself to not get much more than 10 increases before levelling up. yes if you only make potions for your own use it would be less problems however alchemy get far more useful at skill level 50 and 75 so you would end up with lots of weak potions and poisons.

has few problems with sneak as a major, it levels up pretty fast but helps you directly as an archer, yes you can power train it but unlike alchemy its an exploit not using a skill naturally.

If you want to use light armor take it as a major, also take blade as it's usually fitting, My archer builds usually have acrobatic but alteration is also nice.

I know Light Armor only affects light armor. Everyone should know that. I'm asking if a chest piece of light armor has a bonus of 10 agility will higher Light Armor skill increase the 10 agility that chest piece gives? You didn't seem to get what I was trying to say.

I'll change it to Sneak as a minor. That's always been a question of mine. Thanks.

OK, Thief just lets you hit 100 quicker.

I'll toss Alchemy and Sneak as Majors and add in other things, thanks!

If you're talking about light armor skill affecting armor enchantments, no it doesn't.

Choosing the Thief birthsign just means you need fewer attribute raises to get it to 100, plus, of course, it starts higher. You can't raise any attribute beyond a "natural" 100 although you could use enchantments to get them higher. I've read that Agility past 100 does help prevent staggering, but I don't know ir it's true; it does not contribute to more damage past 100.

I prefer to leave Sneak as a minor skill, partly because it makes it easier to level Agility. What you want to do is get good Marksman raises as you level. If you level by increasing Sneak and Alchemy and Light Armor (another fast-levelling skill), Marksman gets left behind and you resort more and more to Blade, which is also going to level slowly, especally since it's not a spec skill. Marksman gets to be a much, much better skill once it hits 75 and you start getting knockdowns.

You do not need 100% chameleon to sneak up and stab. High sneak, Nocturnal's Cowl and the Ring of Khajiit provide plenty of stealth.

Mara